What’s It Gonna Take? How to Finally End Procrastination & Take Action!

This article was not easy to write. In fact, it was one of the more challenging articles I’ve written in a while. Why? Because it deals with something that’s not easy for us to talk about: The reason why most people don’t take the action they know they should so that they can have the success they say they want to have.

The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary. It’s an old-school, classic, tried-and-true principle: If you want to have success, you’ve got to work hard to make it happen. And hard work means taking action.

Why do you think most people don’t take the action that needs to be taken? I believe it comes down to two things: 1. Lack of Knowledge, or 2. Abundance of Fear.

Lack of knowledge obviously means that you don’t KNOW WHAT TO DO. That makes sense, right? If you don’t have the knowledge, how can you do what needs to be done? There’s a simple fix for that: Get the training you need! There’s two ways to get it – you either go to the school of hard knocks, where you go out and try to learn it all on your own, OR you pay someone to teach you. Believe it or not, you will save SO much time and money if you just find the right teacher/trainer/mentor and pay them.

Which brings us to our second reason most people don’t take the action that needs to be taken, and this reason is a lot more wicked and common than the first: FEAR.

Fear freezes. It paralyzes. If you allow fear to rule your life, you’ll live a life of mediocrity – or worse.

A quote I once heard went something like this: “A life lived in fear is a life half-lived.” I think I heard that in a movie, but it made sense to me.

There’s only ONE definite way to conquer fear: Take Action! When you take action to face and conquer the fear you have, the fear or what you have goes away. It’s amazing, and I’ve personally seen and experienced it countless times in countless situations.

The best advice I’ve heard went something like this: “Feel the Fear, and DO IT Anyway!” Then ask yourself this: “What’s the worst that could happen, and what can I do to prevent that?” Hey, you want to be assertive & successful, not stupid, right? :)

Fear is a natural thing. As humans, we have a natural instinct for self-preservation. We don’t want to die, so we feel afraid when we face something that our subconscious perceives as dangerous. The unknown is one of those things we’re afraid of, hence the expression “The Devil You Know is Better Than the One You Don’t.”

So with all this fear floating around us in our everyday lives, what’s it gonna take for you to take action to conquer that stinkin’ fear once and for all? If you know what you need to do, why aren’t you doing what needs to be done to claim your success?

A few years ago, I had a personal moment of realization. At the time, I was educated but broke. I was working my butt off, doing what “they” tell us to do, but barely had enough money to feed my young family. Even though I loved what I was doing (Ballroom Dance Instructor), it was sometimes hard to put food on the table and pay all the other bills that needed to be paid.

So I decided to make a change. I got into real estate investing. I hardly knew a thing at the time, so I went out & got some training to learn what needed to be learned. After a little while, I found the best teacher & trainer I could – Ron LeGrand.

At first, I was terrified to do what needed to be done. Put up signs, mail out letters, go to meetings, and (gulp) TALK to people! Oh yeah, and make offers…and do what I said I was going to do. All that stuff. Scary as hell.

Even though I didn’t know everything, I knew enough to get started. So that’s what I did. I took massive action and kept going. Learned as I went. Made countless mistakes. Bent some rules a little bit, but I got deals closed and made money. All while being scared out of my mind.

What’s my secret? What’s the secret of so many people who have had success in this (or any other) business? There’s a lot of possibilities, but I personally believe it all comes down to ONE thing – this quote that I made up about 15 years ago. Write this down:

I’ve been saying that for years, and I really believe it’s true. I think it relates nicely to another article I wrote recently about how to get anything out of life by getting OUT of your comfort zone.

But think about that for a moment – chances are that nothing of significance is going to happen for you in your life until you’re so sick and tired of being sick and tired of your current circumstances that you make a personal pact with yourself that you’re just going to do WHATEVER IT TAKES to get to the next level.

Either that, or you just get so excited about something that you just have to take action to get what you want.

The first one is a negative/fear/moving-away-from-something kind of thing. The second is moving towards something positive. Either way works.

Most people in the world take action because they’re afraid of what might happen or would continue to happen if they don’t take action. It’s a shame, but that seems to be the reality.

So here’s the next secret you need to figure out: Which kind of person are YOU? Are you a moving towards kind of person or a moving away from kind of person? You’ve got to first figure that out for and about yourself before you really start moving forward in life.

Once you have that understood, you can start to play a game with yourself. Find ways to ‘trick’ yourself if you must so that you change your state within yourself. Ask yourself what will happen in your life if you don’t take the action you know you need to take. Chances are: Nothing. Nothing will happen! You’ll keep on doing what you’re doing and getting what you’re getting. And we can’t have that.

To close this up, I have one final quote for you. This one comes from the 1974 movie “Network,” one of my personal favorites. You’ve got to stand up and declare to yourself, “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!”

Now, get out there & TAKE ACTION!!

Until Next Time,

Tony Pearl

Tony Pearl is an entrepreneur, copywriter, proud father, mentor, marketing consultant and talented teacher who resides in the Washington, DC area. He has traveled to over 26 countries, speaks 4 languages, and continues to travel extensively. He has been a professional Ballroom and Latin dance instructor, competitor, and exhibitor for over 19 years. As a Real Estate Investor, Tony has bought and sold over Ten Million dollars worth of real estate, and has been educated by and associates with the best.